Chapter 480

A squadron of thirty-odd vessels, each a few hundred zhang long, known for speed, the Great Martial flying ships came howling.

The commander of this Great Martial small flotilla obviously had plenty of 'courage'; he directed the fleet in tight formation, war drums beating all the way, horns shaking the heavens, waving countless battle flags, and rushed at top speed to a point less than ten li from Great Marsh City.

Just as they were about to crash into the wall of Great Marsh City, this tiny flotilla suddenly made a sharp turn, the fleet tracing a huge arc, ostentatiously intending to skim parallel less than one li from the city wall.

On the wall, dozens of Wood Spirit Elders simultaneously raised their right hands.

Hundreds of thousands of Wood Spirit warriors stood packed on the wall, they uniformly drew their specially made short bows, accompanied by a 'buzzing' bowstring twang, countless arrows instantly covered the thirty-odd flying vessels.

Initially, when Sima You's fleet first encountered the Wood Spirits at an altitude of several thousand zhang, their scout vanguard ships would be blown apart by the Wood Spirits from midair.

Now the Wood Spirits have exchanged bird guns for cannons; the bows and arrows in their hands are the specially made short bows sent in the second and third batches by Mr. Li, whose quality is several tens of percent better than the first batch's five hundred thousand short bows, and the arrows' lethality is also greater.

As for the shipbuilding techniques of Great Martial, no matter the class of vessel, they are far inferior to those of Great Jin.

The thirty-odd ostentatious small flying ships' defensive barriers flickered chaotically, countless sparks burst from their hulls; having flown parallel to the wall for just a few dozen zhang, they were blown apart midair by countless arrows.

On the small flying ships, nearly ten thousand soldiers and sailors fled in disarray from the flames, and before they could even grasp what had happened, several thousand Metal Spirits had already stormed into their ranks.

These Metal Spirits shrank their bodies into round metal balls; countless sharp blades shot out from within the balls, after which the metal balls began to spin wildly, darting frenziedly through their ranks.

Severed limbs and broken arms littered the sky, blood spattered, dyeing the moat below red.

Only the fleet commander, a Half-Step Fetal Storage Realm cultivator, escaped in disarray, losing an arm as the price to break free from the Metal Spirits' frenzied slaughter.

He hoarsely wailed, looking back with shock and anger at Great Marsh Prefecture.

'Pff!'

Hundreds of arrows whistled forth, piercing his body one after another, accompanied by the shrill sound of arrows passing through him; the Great Martial officer's corpse exploded into a cloud of blood mist, and his soul was utterly annihilated by a specially made Soul-Extinguishing Arrow.

Chunks of warship wreckage rained down, some falling into the moat; the hot wreckage boiled the moat's water, sending up steam.

Some wreckage fell into the fields outside the city; the blaze ignited the already yellowing crops outside, fires sprang up everywhere, the farmland began to burn, the air filled with the roasted aroma of scorched crops, followed by a foul burnt smell.

Several small Great Martial fleets came to attack.

Having seen the fate of the first fleet, they dared not approach Great Marsh City, instead choosing to loiter at a distance of several dozen li from it.

After about the time to finish a cup of tea, large sheets of fire poured down from these fleets.

These Great Martial warships dumped fire oil, igniting vast expanses of forest and fields outside the city. It was clear, sunny autumn, the season when crops are about to be harvested, also when forest fruits are at their plumpest and animals fatten up for winter.

Black columns of smoke shot up, and the flames, like vicious demon claws, began to devour everything.

The farmland and forests on all sides of Great Marsh City fell into a sea of fire, as Great Martial spellcasters formed arrays and chanted incantations, stirring up wind and waves. The winds aloft shifted, and gusts blew along the ground, howling as they drove the flames toward the city.

Soon Great Marsh City was shrouded in thick smoke.

The city's defensive barriers were fully activated, a heavy curtain of light covering the city and keeping the black smoke outside.

The black smoke spread along the light curtain, forming a thick black veil outside it that blocked the sunlight.

Inside Great Marsh City, all was pitch black, and everywhere came the terrified cries of children.

Soon countless lanterns and torches lit up inside the city, dispelling the darkness and illuminating the streets and alleys; squads of soldiers began to patrol the lanes, and the whole city instantly entered a state of war.

Huang Lang stood on the southern gate tower with a host of officials, drenched in cold sweat as he watched the distant Great Martial fleets setting fires.

Tension gripped him as if his viscera were being clenched in a fist, his heart pounding violently, his organs spasming, sweat continually seeping from his body, which Huang Lang covertly evaporated with his magical power.

At this moment he was the highest official of Great Marsh City, and no matter how panicked he felt inside, he could not show it.

He forced his eyes shut and Huang Lang took a deep breath.

Before, in Great Jin he had merely been a prefect, and a long-time peaceful prefect at that, never having truly faced a real battle of swords and spears. Handling the various affairs of Great Marsh Prefecture, Huang Lang was completely at ease; but to have him command the Five Elements Spirit tribes and fight the Great Martial, he panicked greatly.

He is a civil official, not a general!

Moreover, he and those officials around him have never commanded a battle of this scale!

Clenching his teeth, Huang Lang's voice trembled slightly as he waved his hand forward: 'Give them a taste of their own medicine!'

Above Great Marsh City, in the eighteen floating war fortresses aligned in a line, one fortress flew forward several hundred zhang, then the barrels of its three super-large-caliber main guns suddenly lit up; the three fully charged super-large-caliber main guns simultaneously spewed forth light pillars as thick as a li.

The entire Great Marsh City was bathed in snow‑bright by a sudden strong light; many citizens who had looked up at the sky saw nothing but a white glare, and if the city's defensive barrier had not blocked over ninety percent of the light, their eyeballs would have been blinded by this strong light.

Even so, the city still rang with countless citizens' earth‑shaking cheers.

Wherever the three huge beams of light passed, all things were annihilated.

A fleet of over a hundred small and medium warships, unable to dodge, was struck by the three beams of light. With a tremendous boom, a blinding ball of light exploded in the sky tens of li away; a light cluster several li in diameter hung like a small sun in the high air, lasting for a full seven or eight breaths before fading away.

That fleet was completely vaporized, not a scrap left!

The eighteen floating artillery platforms of Great Marsh State were aimed at the Great Jin's secretly built giant flagship, a war machine over a thousand zhang long, crafted with Great Jin's highest level of artifice.

These platforms' giant guns could cripple that kind of flagship with a single shot—let alone those small flying vessels only a few hundred zhang long, built by the unskilled artificers of Great Witch!

Using a cannon to swat a mosquito—about the right idea.

Several other squads of the Great Wu's small fleets, who had been wantonly setting fires, were terrified out of their wits; they hastily turned their prows and fled Great Marsh City at top speed.

They had in fact long seen the eighteen floating fortresses hovering above Great Marsh City, but they never imagined that those fortresses would actually mount such heavy guns.

It's outright uncanny—such heavy artillery isn't meant for defending an imperial capital, or the capital of some powerful fief, is it?

Great Marsh State is merely a newly opened barbaric region of Great Jin—how could it possess such a massive weapon of slaughter?

Sharp bugle calls rang out continuously; the fleeing airships stopped spraying burning oil downward and instead sent out thin streams of grayish powder from their holds, which drifted down lightly into the forests below.

Several Great Marsh officials who had cultivated the auxiliary Heavenly Eye ability, granting them sight of hundreds of li, rose into the air, hovered, and gazed at the fleeing vessels.

The gray dust settled on the forests; one could see the black, oily, fertile soil quickly change color, turning from rich black to a pale yellow‑white, and the soil began to granulate, shifting from a greasy, fertile consistency to something like the texture of the Gobi Desert.

Moreover, under the gray dust the forest's countless leaves turned gray‑yellow at a visible speed, then shed in great numbers to the ground.

Those towering trees over a hundred zhang tall not only shed masses of leaves; their smaller branches also withered and dropped off the trunks continuously.

In the space of a quarter hour, the woods where those ships had fled became vast bald expanses.

The trunks, now gray‑yellow and swiftly turning rotting black, stood bare and smooth like dead men's fingers pointing straight up to the sky. A wild wind swept over the bald woods, kicking up great clouds of dust.

"This is…" Huang Lang also rose into the sky; lacking the auxiliary Heavenly Eye ability, he used a clear mirror to see the scene hundreds of li away.

Centering on Great Marsh City, the forests within a radius of nearly a thousand li were rapidly turning to dust; the black soil became gray‑yellow and quickly granulated. It was as if a plague aimed at the land were spreading fast, and the hills around Great Marsh City were rapidly deteriorating.

"How vicious!" Huang Lang's heart clenched, and he spat out a mouthful of blood.

Great Marsh Prefecture had already been taken by Huang Lang as a spiritual refuge; after his family suffered a drastic change, it became the land where the whole family could settle and make a living. He and his clansmen had poured too much heart and sweat onto this land.

With the support of the patrons behind Wu Tie, Great Marsh Prefecture was changing almost day by day, becoming prosperous and thriving, becoming wealthy and flourishing.

But these invaders of Great Wu, they intend to cut off the roots of Great Marsh Prefecture!

Even if the patrons behind Wu Tie support him no matter how, can you establish a fertile paradise in a barren wilderness?

"Kill them for me!" Huang Lang trembled with rage and let out a hysterical roar.

Eighteen floating war fortresses rose into the sky simultaneously; the effective destruction range of these floating war fortresses reached tens of thousands of miles; even if the fleet of Great Wu fled as fast as possible, in that time they could only run out a few dozen miles.

But as the floating war fortresses rushed into the sky, these few small fleets instantly scattered, and hundreds of small flying vessels fled in all directions like startled flies.

Giant pillars of light shot through the void, each precisely striking a fleeing small flying vessel.

Eighteen floating war fortresses, fifty-four giant cannons—this strike destroyed fifty-four small flying vessels…

Huang Lang took a deep breath and ordered the attack to stop.

Such efficiency is terrible.

Such floating war fortresses should not be used against such small targets.

If a great army of the Divine State of Great Wu were to attack, that would be the time for these floating war fortresses to show their worth.

"Defend Great Marsh City to the death… If the territory of this prefecture is damaged, I will naturally apologize to Governor Huo." Huang Lang's face twitched violently; at this moment he had already regarded Great Wu as a mortal enemy, and countless vicious thoughts churned in his heart.

Time passed bit by bit, and from time to time groups of three to five Great Wu flying vessels screamed past.

They carefully avoided Great Marsh City, refusing to come within a hundred miles no matter what.

Flying vessels of all sizes shuttled across the territory of Great Marsh Prefecture, continuously shedding gray dust that frenziedly destroyed the land within Great Marsh Prefecture.

Fortunately, the location of Great Marsh City is a huge island, surrounded by endless Great Marsh, all of it dangerous weak water. When the gray dust fell into the Great Marsh, it caused no harm to its waters.

Even so, the large island where Great Marsh City sits changed color in a short time; the green island turned barren gray-yellow within a few hours, and the wind blowing over the Great Marsh instantly kicked up clouds of dust.

A muffled explosion sounded in the distance.

Wu Tie commanded thousands of warships of various sizes, entangled all the way with a main fleet of the vanguard corps of the Destroy Jin Army, fighting chaotically, and finally reached the border of Great Marsh.

This main fleet entangled by Wu Tie originally had five or six thousand warships of various sizes, but after the entanglement it now numbers less than three thousand.

The shipbuilding standards of the two states indeed differ greatly; Wu Tie's ships remain largely intact, while the remaining Great Wu vessels are basically spewing thick or thin black smoke.

Just as the fleet was about to be annihilated, a Great Wu commander suddenly shouted, and nearly three thousand Great Wu warships simultaneously abandoned defense and evasion, turning almost hysterically to unleash a concentrated barrage of fire upon Wu Tie's flagship dozens of miles to the rear.

Wu Tie let out a strange cry, and the five-element divine light behind him swept up, gathering all the soldiers on his flagship in one grasp; then he, together with Pei Feng and Lao Tie, shot up into the high sky.

With a tremendous boom, the flagship that Wu Tie had taken over from Sima Lang was shattered, its lights blazing; facing the frantic bombardment of nearly three thousand warships, this giant ship, stretching eighteen hundred zhang in length, was forcibly ripped open with countless holes of all sizes, then slowly disintegrated amid countless beams of light of varying thickness, exploding into fragments.

A ball of violent fire exploded, sucking in dozens of Great Marsh Prefecture warships nearby.

A mountain below was blown to pieces by the shockwave of the exploding flagship, and on the ground a huge pit several dozen miles in diameter was blasted open.

Wu Tie shot up into the high sky and, without thinking, glanced toward the direction of Great Marsh City.

No longer the verdant expanse of before, the heart of Great Marsh Lake in the distance was nothing but a barren gray-yellow desert!

Wu Tie stared blankly, then his pupils suddenly turned blood-red!

"My territory!"

Wu Tie had no time for that; he glanced left and right, and in the nearby Great Marsh Prefecture fleet, ninety-nine percent of the troops were the Five Element Spirits he had brought out, while the other Great Marsh Prefecture forces were all individuals whose souls he had controlled, leaving only a small part of the Black Phoenix Army… Wu Tie trusted Pei Feng's command ability.

Filled with shame and rage, even a bit desperate, Wu Tie let out a long whistle.

The Innate Yin-Yang Two-Qi Vessel shot up from above Wu Tie's head; inside a vase over a foot tall with a long neck, two strands of extremely long and extremely fine black-and-white spiritual qi whistled out, lightly wrapping around the nearly three thousand Great Wu warships.

This was left behind by the Primordial Great Peng Bright King; it is a true primordial supreme treasure.

As the black-and-white qi wrapped around, the three thousand Great Wu warships vanished instantly; Wu Tie struck the Yin-Yang Two-Qi Vessel with a thunder seal palm, hearing a boom of thunder, and all the Great Wu officers swept into the vessel had their souls shaken, their memories washed clean by the yin-yang qi.